Gordon looked at the airboat, deciding whether to tinker the seat to fit Twilight. Indeed, the seat could be forced forward, with a screwdriver and a hammer. The back panel could be taken out, maybe even built back a bit to fit something small. It would be a tight fit, but he could modify it haphazardly. He walked over to the tool box.
“What are you doing?” The woman asked, setting down the gas can.
“Twilight, you’re going to have to explain.” Gordon became slightly annoyed.
“But she thinks I’m not real.”
“Do what you need to do.”
“Alright then, if you say so.” She approached the woman. “Hi-”
“AHH!!” The woman shrieked, going for her pistol. Gordon had already snatched the ammo.
“Wha- but- I-the-it-it talked! Ahh!”
“There are worse things out there speaking English than me, you know. One of them wanted cake,” Twilight said, scrunching up her brow in an angry look. “Look, human, I’ve only been in this universe for less than a day, and I’ve already been shot, scratched, mauled, jumped, sliced, exploded, drowned, and almost burnt. Shut your yap and let him use your damn tools!”
“Whoa where’d you learn that language?” Gordon was surprised, this was the second time in ten minutes she has acted up.
“I’ve picked up, I’m a fast learner.” She turned towards the lady again, “I’m not gonna take the whole, ‘Oh jeez it’s a talking purple horse!’ stuff again, look at you! You humans and your dirty world and dirty dysfunctional society. This place is screwed up big time, and I did the math. I’m good in math.” Twilight huffed out air. She’d never told somep- someone off like that.
“Ah-okay, whatever you say. If Gordon n-needs it, just take i-it!” The lady slowly backed up and sat down on the bench.
“Damn Twilight, like a boss!” Gordon chuckled, but no sound came out.
“What?”
“Nothing, hand me the screwdriver over there.”
**********************
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy zoomed through City 17, checking out every nook and cranny of the dirty wasteland of a once nice city. Metrocops pushed cuffed citizens around, shoving them into APC’s and driving off.
“I wonder what they're doing,” Dash said, creeping along the rooftop beside Fluttershy. She was trembling as the wind ruffled her hair.
“I-I couldn't imagine.” Fluttershy watched one of the civilians get smacked in the back of the head with a stun baton. He spit up blood and fell down, but was picked back up and thrown against the wall.
“You- damn- bastards!” He turned around and spit blood over the CP’s mask. It recoiled and this time jabbed him in the gut. “Augh!” He cried in pain, bleeding from broken teeth.
“Whoa, this is getting brutal!” Dash said, almost looking as if she wanted to see it all. Fluttershy however couldn't watch another bit and covered her eyes. “Those humans in the black are kicking butt!”
“They’re s-s-s-scary!”
“C’mon Fluttershy you big baby, let’s go get a better look!”
“But I don’t wa-”
They flew overhead to watch the humans beat one another. The odd looking one, with what looked like had a mask on, got the other helpless human in a hold, and held him to the ground locking him in metal cuffs. The other was pinned against the strange, large black thing of what was obviously a vehicle.
“I hope it’s alright.” Fluttershy weeped, feeling sorry for the bloody human.
“Who cares about the stupid human! I want to see another fight!”
Out of nowhere came a humming sound. It grew louder and louder, almost seeming right behind the two ponies as they floated above the city street.
“You hear that, Fluttershy?”
“Y-yeah, what do you think it is?”
“I don’t-” Click, click, Shoooph! “AHRG!”
A city scanner had floated up to investigate what seemed to be new life forms. It snapped its lens, blinding Dash in the process.
-------
Scanner Report:
//Bioreport\\
[Unregistered Species]
[Non-registered unit detected]
[Acquiring scan]
[...]
[Scan complete]
[Testing planetary code: 1T11A11R1DIS11BAD11WOLF11]
[Rewriting system code\\ processing...\\ Found alike targets in -CANAL SYSTEM B- and -CITY 17 LIMITS, APARTMENTS 11- with fugitive Human_GordonF.]
[BioCODE: Parasite ALERT!]
WARNING: ALERT SYSTEM ENGAGED!
------
“Augh! What is that?! I’m blind!” All she could see was white.
“Oh no! Are you ok?!”
“I’m fine!” Her vision quickly came back, recovering. Now all the metro cops had heard them, and stared.
“Uh oh...”
**********************
Twilight squeezed behind the airboat seat, feeling the vibration of the fan. Gordon took off quickly once the woman lifted the gates up. They glided down into the sizzling acids, occasionally hitting logs or bumps. The riverbay was destroyed from the acids, once river water replaced with the gunk.
A gate blocked their ways back into the large canal tunnels, but a crank above controlled the up/down mechanism. Twilight simply used her magic to turn it, opening the blockade.
After a solid ten minutes of constant tunnels, they made it to freshwater and stopped the airboat. Twilight was so eager to clean off that she jumped out and splashed around, giggling. For having such a hard time, Twilight sure changed her mood fast, thought Gordon. He remained in the airboat, relaxing his legs. The airboat rocked back and forth in the gentle waves of the river. As if the moment couldn’t get more peacefu- BEEP BEEP! “Low energy detected. Activating emergency power.”
Twilight resurfaced from the cold water, a residue of red and green floating beside her. She shivered at the thought of all that gore on her coat.d Gordon, who returned the look with a slightly annoyed expression. She began to feel self-conscious about letting him down, but perked up and decided to cheer him up (Despite the fact that everything, and that means everything, was trying to kill him).
“What’s wrong?” Twilight walked up to the dirt beach and shook off.
“Suit’s dead.”
“It’s not like we need it now, right?”
“Right, hop in.”
**********************
Twilight grew cramped in the airboat; they had been driving for at least thirty minutes and already stopped twice: once to kill zombies in station 6, the old red barn, another to raise a ramp so they could jump over a pile of rubble. Unfortunately, the river-gate ahead was slowly closing, so Gordon had to make a turn into the control room. They both stepped out onto the concrete dock.
“Wait, why are we going inside?” Twilight asked.
“The gate. There’s no other way around.”
“But weren’t we were avoiding the Civil Protection?”
“Like I said, ‘no other way through’. Reload... I’m guessing this is a checkpoint.”
They busted the lock on the door, immediately leading into a file room. A .357 magnum was on the table, fully loaded. Gordon grabbed the few boxes of ammunition next to it and took notice of the suit charges in the corner of the room. The door suddenly burst open and a hail of SMG fire filled the room. Turns out it was Twilight’s gun, and a dead CP officer standing in the doorway.
“You know I’m really getting tired of these guys.” Twilight released the half empty clip and slid in a fresh one.
The stairs led up to the overwatch brigade, and a manhack control room. More officers were waiting for them, but were shot down by the powerful magnum, and Twilight’s pistol marksmanship. Gordon spotted grenades in the storage rooms, taking a few and putting them in his belt. The cylinder frag explosives would come in handy in the next room. Manhack parts littered the room from Twilight. She had used her magic to crush, and even throw them at her enemies. Good tactic, Gordon thought.
Civil protection officers had set up a defense outside using an AR2 Pulse cannon and combine shield. A deadly combination powerful enough to take out a fully armed helicopter, if not a small army. Gordon flung a grenade at them, it bounced off the wall and hit the gunner directly in the back of the head. *BOOSH!*
“Auuuhhh!” He screamed, followed by his radio’s eerie ringing.
Finally, they had reached the control room and began clearing that out as well. After a whole pistol round and a grenade, the room was clear to pass. Outside, Gordon noticed the busted gate mechanism. Twilight made a brilliant backup plan and blew up an explosive barrel which then destroyed the support for a metal beam. It swung and crashed into the river gates, knocking them down with brute force.
"Attention, please. Unidentified person of interest, confirm your civil status with local protection team immediately." The distant sound of the overwatch voice rang throughout the base intercoms. "Individual, you are now charged with socio-endangerment level five, cease evasion immediately. Receive your verdict."
Gordon and Twilight stood and pondered at the civil protection transmission, it was talking about them. “Attention: Ground units in City 17 sector 1, unidentified lifeform registered. Code: Capture, Dissect, Sterilize.”
“Wait a second,” Gordon said, “We’re not in sector 1--it’s not talking about us now.”
“Who else would be wanted? They said new life form.
“But they’ve already registered all life forms on Earth.
“Dissect? Sterilize? What are they getting- We aren’t from Earth.”
"Citizen notice, priority identification check in progress. Please, assemble in your designated inspection positions. City sector 1 lockdown, do not engage. Confirmed scanner results as possible parasitic life form.”
“Parasitic?” Twilight wondered.
“Alert. Specimen status: fugitive, level two. Air forces engage speed protocol.”
“Air forces? Wait this thing is airborne?”
“Strange, there are not many airborne Xen, though I’ve not seen all of them.” Gordon noted. “Could have just arrived, bit late though.”
Twilight rubbed her chin. Flying, speed, two of them? “Two flying creatures? New registered species? You don’t think it's- Oh no!”
**********************
“Faster!” Rainbow Dash yelled, zooming through the sky. A gunship was almost touching her tail. “Fluttershy, faster! Look out!” Bullets shot through the sky behind them both. “We gotta lose this thing!”
“Ahhhh!” Fluttershy screamed, ignoring Dash and focused on the large gunship.
“The lab! We need to get back! Oh jeez, where was that?! Fluttershy, where was that?!”
“I-I-I Don’t know!”
“Agh!” Dash was circling the city, looking for the laboratory building. In the corner of her eye, she noticed it. “Down there!” They swerved and went straight down, crashing through the windows of the apartment building.
---
Dash opened her eyes, seeing a wall. Her face was smashed up against it, along with Fluttershy. Through the ringing in her ears, a voice scolded them. For a second, she thought it was Barney, but it turned out to be much different. A cold, hard object pushed at the back of her head.
“I said get up!”
“Wilson! I don’t think it understands you!”
“Whoa, what do you think it is?”
“Whatever it is, it brought the whole armada!”
“Gunships!”
“Get to the basements! Jeff, grab the rockets! Let’s show these bastards who's boss!”
“What about these things?”
“I’ll take care of them, two rounds oughta do it.” The cold object tapped against Dash’s head.
“We aren’t going to kill them, for all we know they could be what was sent to stop the Combine!”
“Liz, the only thing that’s gonna kill the combine is manpower. Whatever these things are, they deserve to die!”
“I will not have this! Bring them down to the basement with us!”
“What if they attack?”
“We show them what rebels can do!”
---
“Aw, my head!” Dash complained, rubbing her temples. “F-fluttershy, you there? Hello?” The humming fluorescent lamp above was the only sound she could hear besides the occasional rumble and crash above.
“I told you, Jeff! It speaks English!”
“Liz, don’t get your hopes up, it’s a fucking horse.”
“It’s blue.” Liz frowned. “Horses weren’t blue. And since when could they fly?”
“With all that toxic waste out there, who knows!”
“Horses have been extinct before you were even born, Jeff.”
“So?”
“So how do you know it’s a horse? And if horses have been extinct for more than twenty years, how is thing a horse?!”
“Since now, I guess.”
“Ugh, Jeff, you’re an idiot.”
“Says you, Liz. You were the one trying to eat headcrab legs.”
“That was only once, okay? I was hungry and it looked good after I cooked it.”
“You were sick for a week, hell you almost blew our cover!”
“Doesn't matter now, they know we're here now.”
“Thanks to these- horses!”
“Look, it speaks English! It’s not a horse!”
“It does not speak English! Thats what you said about the zombies; ‘Oh they just want cake! Durr!’ and it took off Rob’s arm.”
“I was like fifteen alright? Shut up! It speaks English!”
“Oh yeah?” Jeff walked over and lightly kicked at Dash’s back. “Speak up, ya stupid animal!” He kicked again.”I said speak up!” Dash didn’t move. “See? I told y- OOPH!”
“Who’s the stupid horse now, Mr. Human?” Dash said angrily, standing up. She had kicked him in the stomach.
“But-you-horse-English-talk-how-what?!”
“Looks like you need to learn English yourself,” Liz chuckled. “I told you it’s not a horse!”
“Ur- where am I?” Dash asked, looking around the room. The walls were concrete, and the floor was cold and dirty.
“Apartment storage, it’s a basement.”
“I’m guessing it has to do with that giant bird thing?”
“Bird thi- oh, the gunship? Yeah.”
“Sorry for the window- heh- where’s Fluttershy?”
“Who?”
“The other one, like me. Yellow, pink, huge eyes-”
“Oh her, shes in the other room.”
“Wait, her name is what now?” Jeff asked, interested in the conversation.
“Fluttershy.”
“What kind of name is Fluttershy?”
“What kind of name is Jeff?”
“Er- its-”
“So where is Fluttershy?” Dash asked again, annoyed at the circumstances.
“In the crate room.”
“Can you take me to her?”
“Yeah, follow me.”
**********************
Gordon tugged his crowbar out of the bloody corpse. That was the last one in the building. They had to go back through the building while being trampled by enemy after enemy. Twilight was already shot four times in the back, and a clean hole had been torn through her leg, now seeping with medical fluids. She had a small limp, but shrugged it off. Gordon noticed the grimace on her face as they got back into the airboat.
“I’m not going to lie, it’s most likely them.”
“What do we do?!” Twilight jumped up, almost crying. “I couldn’t live with myself if they got hurt; it’s my fault that they’re here!”
“It’s not your fault. They are in trouble, though, so just worry about the task at hand, Twilight.”
“But they’re my friends!”
“And this is your life. Now pay attention!” The roar of a chopper suddenly filled the air. “Yeah, this isn’t good.”
“Not this again!” Twilight yelled, an angry look on her face. “When do they stop?!”
“Twilight, try throwing the bombs back at them!”
“Think that’ll work?”
“Nope, but we can still try!”
Skipping the next station was an error on Gordon’s part as that was where he was supposed to get the chopper gun. He thought it would save time to take a detour and instead use a different strategy to save precious time. The chopper had been chasing them throughout the canals, though they lost it a while back. It fired pulse rounds, puncturing the airboats metal buoys. It then dropped a series of bombs in their path. Twilight levitated them out of the water, whipping the explosives at the chopper. At one point, she found an explosive barrel. After a round of constant back and forth retaliation, the chopper lost power and ignited, crashing into the riverbed.
“Finally!” Twilight cheered, sweating profusely. “We beat it!”
Gordon simply nodded. “Now hold on!” He floored it through one of the spillways in the dam, breaking into a freefall.
“What are you- Ahhhhhhhhhh!” Twilight held her hooves up.
SPLASH!
“You did that on purpose.”
“Heh- I didn’t know that was there at all.” He looked away. “Black Mesa east is right over there.”
“Then what are we waiting for?!”
“You to let go of me.”
“Oh- heh- right.” Twilight released the chokehold and sat back down.